This is not your Grandmother's
Antigone. Anouilh's piece noir version of Sophocles' Greek
tragedy was motivated by the Nazi occupation of France
and the choice the French people had to either resist
dictatorship or bend to the will of the totalitarian state.
The One Year Lease production of the play begins with
fuguelike music and a smoky open stage set that looks
like a bizarre dungeon fashion show. In addition to the
terrific one-two combination of Tella Storey as Antigone
and Ariane Barbanell as Creon, other characters are voiced
by offstage actors as spotlights focus on a certain piece
of onstage clothing or a mannequin that represents the
character. Be adventurous and try experimental theater
in a part of town that features numerous small companies
dedicated more to the aesthetics of theater than to selling
souvenirs along with their garish productions that cost
hundreds of dollars a person for tickets, parking, and
dinner. Catch one of the last performances of the play
June 13-15 at 8pm and on June 17th at 3pm before it moves
across the sea for a week of shows in Athens, Greece.
The postcard advertising the production features a photograph
by renowned photographer, John Demos, who has exhibited
his work in Thessaloniki, among other places.